Big Kid

Bravo, Holly Robinson Peete. The actress recently put rapper 50 Cent in his place after he tweeted a cruel slur about autism.

It started Monday night when a fan threatened to shoot him if he didn't release his new album. 50 shot right back, but he went where he should have never gone. He tweeted: "Yeah i just saw your picture fool you look autistic." To make matters worse, he followed that with another one that read: "i dont want no special ed kids on my time line follow some body else."

What an insensitive, jerky thing to write, and Peete -- the mother of a son with autism and an outspoken autism advocate -- let him know it.

In an open letter to 50 Cent on the Hollyrod website, she told him that when she read his comment, her "heart sank." She said she had hoped his account had been hacked, but "no such luck." She asked him, "Do you even know what autism is?" She went on:

I hope you can see how what you might see as a benign insult-or not- was so randomly hurtful, immature and misinformed. Maybe you are naive or indifferent as to how many of your fans might be deeply and personally offended by your insult.

We are no joke. Neither is autism. We are not about to let you attempt to make “autistic” the new “R-word” under our watch.

Then she got personal and told him about her own son, Rodney Peete.

So I guess this is what autistic looks like? He is in special ed. He loves rap music and is a HUGE fan of yours. He’s a tremendous kid. He has to deal with so much trying to fit in. This isn’t helping.

Good for her, and shame on 50 Cent. The fan's comment was out of line for sure, but there was no reason for 50 Cent to go where he went. Autism is such a huge, life-changing challenge that so many families face, and the last thing we need is people making fun of them or spreading misinformation about them. It's not funny, it's not clever, it's simply ignorant and classless, and I hope 50 Cent and others have learned a thing or two after being schooled by Peete. 

So far, the rapper has offered no apology, beyond saying, "I would @Danicakes23 never talk about kids condition. People say all kinds of crazy things to me on twitter." It does at least appear that he's removed the offensive tweets, but if he has any kind of decent bone in his body, a full-fledged apology will hopefully be forthcoming soon.

Do you hear people making slurs about people with autism and other special needs? If so, do you stand up to them?

Image via Autism File